Equality for all ages: ensuring older women are seen and heard

Tanvi Patel, who took up her role as HelpAge International’s Gender Policy Adviser in 2024 discusses the importance of understanding how a person’s gender identity affects their experience of ageing. In this blog, she shares her vision for strengthening gender equality for older women across HelpAge’s work, a perspective that she believes is essential to achieving dignity, respect, and equality for all older people, regardless of their gender.

At HelpAge, we envision a world where everyone can experience equality and respect when we get older. But we can only do this if we recognise the different experience of ageing and older age for men, women, and people of other genders, who each face their own unique challenges and opportunities.

Older women often experience a double burden of gender and age-based discrimination. This impacts their health, financial independence, and social inclusion. We must address this if we want women to live well and fully participate in society when they get older.

I believe that by considering the needs of different genders, we can make a lasting impact, fight discrimination, and support inclusive change.

My focus at HelpAge

To drive forward our gender work at HelpAge, I will be focusing on two areas: gender mainstreaming and advocacy.

In mainstreaming gender into our work, I will with colleagues ensure that our policies, programmes, and practices consider the needs, experiences, and perspectives of all genders at every stage. This includes collecting and using Sex- Age and Disability Disaggregated Data. My goal is to ensure that HelpAge’s work promotes equity and inclusion, addressing the different needs and rights of women, men, and people of other genders.

In our advocacy I want to ensure we take our insights to a broader stage – from national to international level. With a priority on preparing for the upcoming Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) in March 2025, I’m committed to ensuring that older women’s voices resonate in international policy discussions. We’re aiming to place gender at the core of ageing debates by working hand-in-hand with HelpAge network members to influence gender-sensitive policies at every level.

Amplifying older women’s voices

We must also amplify older women’s voices within the global conversation about gender equality. Women of all ages deserve to be heard, which means that older women’s voices should be part of discussions on gender equality and women’s empowerment to ensure their rights, unique experiences, and contributions are recognised and valued.

This can only happen if we place older women’s rights and perspectives at the centre of our work and invite others to do the same.

Advancing gender equality

Explore HelpAge's work promoting the rights of older women.

My vision for the inclusion of older women

My vision at HelpAge focuses on creating an inclusive world where older women are visible, valued, and fully included in all work to promote gender equality. These include:

Amplifying older women’s voices in discussions: Advocating for their perspectives to be central in discussions about gender equality and women’s empowerment, not only in ageing policy but across forums that shape social, economic, and health policies.
Promoting gender-sensitive and transformative approaches: Our programmes and advocacy initiatives must be sensitive to the needs of different genders, and we must make sure to respond to the specific needs of older women and challenge gendered norms and discriminatory attitudes which impact women.
Creating collaborative spaces for older women’s rights: I am keen to establish and participate in spaces where older women’s rights can be championed by a wide range of stakeholders, including HelpAge network members, international agencies, and gender equality advocates. Creating and sustaining alliances can strengthen the collective voice advocating for older women.
4. Combating ageism and gender-based discrimination: I will aim to advocate for policies that combat the combined biases of ageism and gender discrimination and the specific impact they have on older women. We must work to ensure that older women are empowered and their rights are protected.
Encouraging economic empowerment and security for older women: Organisations must focus on reducing the economic inequalities that disproportionately affect older women and result in higher levels of poverty for older women than any other age group. There is a need to recognise care duties, gaps in formal employment as well as work in the informal economy undertaken by many older women, through initiatives that advocate for fair wages, gender responsive pensions, and access to financial resources.

By placing gender equality at the centre of our work, we have an opportunity to challenge long-standing biases to create a more inclusive world. Their voices, perspectives, and experiences are invaluable to shaping policies and practices that truly reflect the lived realities of older women. As we move forward, we want to collaborate with stakeholders—governments, organisations, and individuals—and ask you to join HelpAge in championing the rights of older women. Together, we can ensure that no one is left behind in the fight for dignity, equality, and respect for all.